Real Happiness (12/6/15- )

Real Happiness // Chapter One

Chapter One: The News

Finally deciding to get up, Emmalee swings her legs over the side of the bed and onto icy, dark oak, floor boards. Walking into the bathroom, she shuts the bathroom door before turning on the shower. While she was waiting, Emma stripped, before turning to look at herself in the full-body mirror.

'You are ugly. You're fat. Want another burger, fatty?' Suddenly, she was attacked by the words, that were so often said to her when she was a kid. Those words were the reason why she hated herself, why one time she almost died, trying to lose fat that wasn't there in the first place. Now, don't get me wrong, she had a bit of baby fat, but it was baby fat that she had yet to lose, she was just a late bloomer.

Stumbling back, Emma leaned up against the wall, trying and willing the words to go away. But they wouldn't, they were just an endless loop of words playing again, and again in her head. Taking a deep breath she reaches into the shower, to check the temperature before getting in and letting the water flow over her. Feeling the muscles of her body, but not her mind, relaxing she started her normal shower routine.

~*~

Stepping out of the steaming shower, Emma headed toward her closet in only a towel in her hair and a body towel wrapped herself. 'What to wear? What to wear?' She thought silently to herself while lightly running her fingertips over the clothes that were hung up. Finally, she decided to wear a white t-shirt, a cream sweater, a pair of skinny jeans, and a pair of black Uggs snow boots. After grabbing her backpack and black coat off of her desk, Emma headed to the kitchen where she found her mom pouring over a stack of papers. Her mom, Jenni, had on a pair of reading glasses which made her look older than her 35 self, with a cup of steaming coffee in her hand.

"What's the matter, mom?" Emma asked, heading over to the coffee maker, and poured herself a cup of pure black coffee into a travel cup.

"Nothing honey..." Jenni replied, absentminded.

"Mom, come on. I know you, and you are wearing your reading glasses, something is up because you almost have perfect vision."

"Fine, but first you need to go to school before you're late. And when you get home, we can go out to dinner, and I'll tell you then. Okay?" Jenni said while pushing her daughter to the door while putting her car keys in her hands.

"Fine, but this isn't over," Emma stated, before heading to school.

Arriving at school five minutes later, Emma wasn't surprised to see that almost everyone in the school was outside and trying to capture the last bits of summer before the colder months of winter came. Though it doesn't get that bad, considering that it is Los Angeles, and it doesn't get cold enough to snow, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't get cold (at least to the citizens of LA).

Quickly grabbing her backpack from the passenger seat, Emma jumped out of the car and plastered on the realest smile she could muster up, and went into the three-story school building and started the day.

~*~

Unlocking the front door, Emmalee called out, "Mom, I'm..." But trailed off when she looked around and saw stacks of cardboard boxes. Immediately heading toward the kitchen, she saw her mom sitting at the table. "What's going on?" She demanded.

"Honey, why don't you take a seat?" Jenni asked, motioning to the table.

Emmalee cautiously sits at the table looking at her mom with a questioning look on her face. Her mom takes her glasses off and pinches the bridge of her nose.

"Honey, I'm gonna be straightforward, I got laid off a week ago and with no steady income we are going to go live with your grandmother until I can find a new job."

"What?!" Emma burst out and stood up, almost knocking down her chair. "You expect for me to pack up and leave the few friends I have? You know that I am struggling since dad died and Ryder left, and it sent me spiraling into a depression. Yet you expect me to pick up and leave?"

"Sweetheart, I miss him too, but he is gone and I just lost our one source of income. And without it, we either have to move in with my mother, or get evicted and live on the streets."

"Fine..."

"Thank you, now get packing. I plan for us to leave by Saturday morning and get there in the evening."

Muttering an 'okay', Emma got up and went to the foyer to grab a few boxes, before walking back to her bedroom, thinking how unfair her life has become.

Emma soon finishes packing her room and looks at the clock to see its 11:37 pm. She's too tired to do anymore and soon falls into a deep sleep.

***

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